ABSTRACT
The balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean region was changing, with the death of Manuel Komnenos in September 1180 and Saladin’s takeover of Aleppo in June 1183. Baldwin IV strengthened his position by marrying his younger half-sister Isabel to one of his nobles, Humphrey IV of Toron, and building up the power of his uncle Joscelin III de Courtenay and his mother Agnes de Courtenay in the region around the key port city of Acre, which enabled him to prevent his cousin Count Raymond III of Tripoli from entering the kingdom of Jerusalem in spring 1182. Reluctant to delegate his authority, Baldwin IV only slowly involved his new brother-in-law, Guy de Lusignan, in his government. When he became extremely sick in autumn 1183, Baldwin designated Guy as his regent, but as soon as he recovered he dismissed Guy and instead crowned Sybil’s infant son Baldwin as co-king. Following this, Count Raymond III of Tripoli was put in command of the army of the kingdom and Guy was excluded from government, although he and Sybil continued to control Ascalon. In spring or early summer 1184 Patriarch Eraclius and the masters of the Temple and Hospital set off on a mission to the West to find a new king for Jerusalem, but although they recruited some crusaders no one was willing to come to the east to rule the kingdom.
In spring 1185 Baldwin IV died and his nephew, Sybil’s son, became sole king, with Count Raymond III of Tripoli – rather than Sybil or her husband – as regent, sharing responsibility for the government with Joscelin III de Courtenay. Guy returned to the royal court, and the truce which Raymond of Tripoli made with Saladin in spring 1185 held. But in late summer 1186 the child-king Baldwin V died, precipitating a succession crisis.
